Program Archive

Symposium on "Male Sex Work Identities and their Implications for Health"

On April 19, 2002, the Center co-sponsored an Emory mini-syposium (with the Fogarty AIDS Training and Research Program) entitled, “Male Sex Work Identities and their Implications for Health.” Mark Padilla, a PhD candidate in Emory's Anthropology department and a former fellow of the CHCS (1997/98), organized the mini-symposium to explore through a broader comparative lens many of the issues he examined in his ethnographic fieldwork with Dominican male sex workers between 1999 and 2001. Data for his research — involving a multi-sited team effort and a close working relationship with USAID funders — was collected through a research association between Mark and Amigos Siempre Amigos (ASA), a Dominican NGO with fifteen years' experience conducting HIV/AIDS prevention among men who have sex with men. Through a combination of anthropological techniques and more formal methods (focus groups, surveys, and semi-structured interviews), the research represents the most significant and long-term study of tourist-oriented male sex work in the Dominican Republic, and one of the only such studies in the region. It is hoped that the ongoing collaboration between Mark and the organization ASA will lead to the design of more effective HIV prevention programs among this previously poorly-understood population. Held in Emory’s Anthropology department, the one-day conference brought together social science researchers and international health professionals with extensive experience in HIV prevention interventions among men who exchange sex for money. The event offered this diverse group the opportunity to share research and work experiences with this “hard-to-reach” and somewhat misunderstood population, and to think both critically and pragmatically about the development of culturally appropriate and effective HIV prevention interventions for male sex workers. The conference placed a regional emphasis on Latin America and the Caribbean, since most of the presenters drew on research experiences in this area. The morning session was devoted to a case study of male sex work among “bugarrones” and “sanky pankies” – local terms for different identities of men who have sex with men – in Boca Chica and Santo Domingo, the Dominican Republic. The presenters included the four members of an international team of collaborating professionals who conducted a three year ethnographic study of Dominican male sex work between 1999 and 2001 (Mark Padilla, Emory anthropology doctoral student; Leonardo Sánchez, Executive Director, Amigos Siempre Amigos [ASA], Santo Domingo; Dr. Martha Arredondo, clinical counseling and services, ASA, Santo Domingo; and Dr. Armando Matiz, Executive Director, Alcanza Tu Armonía, Bogotá, Colombia). Each of the collaborators presented on various aspects of this extensive qualitative–quantitative ethnographic study. Padilla discussed the political-economic context of the tourism industry and the ways the rapidly changing informal sector economy contributes to the emergence of new types of male sex work in the Dominican Republic. Sánchez described the cultural / linguistic definition of the identity terms “bugarrón” and “sanky panky” in the Dominican context, their usage in discourse, male sex workers’ self-identification practices, and the historical emergence of each identity category. Dr. Arredondo discussed more survey results from the study, including data on condom use, perception of HIV risk, and sociodemographic profile. And finally, Dr. Matiz discussed the psycho-emotional stance of sex workers and the ways that it influences their sexual behavior, self-representation practices, performance for wives and girlfriends, and risk for HIV. In the afternoon, Juan Carlos Hernandez, Emory Fogarty Fellow and MPH student, discussed his research and public health experience with “mayates” in Veracruz, Mexico. Reporting on a study he conducted, one of Hernandez’s main points was to interrogate the notion of “sex worker” in international health discourse – a term which tends to efface the local cultural meanings of sexual exchanges in specific ethnographic settings. Finally, Dr. Douglas Feldman (Department of Anthropology, State University of New York, Brockport) – who has nearly 20 years of experience as an anthropologist researching the AIDS epidemic among men who have sex with men provided a critical synopsis of the recent literature on male sex workers and HIV/AIDS, and brought these insights to bear on the ethnographic details described throughout the day.